The present invention relates generally to closures, and more particularly to closures for use on containers, such as bottles, for liquid food products and the like.
There is a need, particularly in the food products industry, for closures that are capable of securely sealing containers for shipping and distribution purposes, yet allow the container to be easily opened and reclosed by the ultimate user, and which facilitate dispensing of the contents of the container on which they are used. Recently, it has also become necessary for closures employed on food product or drug containers to be made tamper-proof or at least tamper-evident.
For many years, threaded type screw-on closures have been employed on liquid containers, and, more recently, snap-on type plastic closures have become prominent for such containers. Generally, snap-on type plastic closures have been successfully utilized on rigid containers made from glass and metal materials but not as successfully on plastic containers. Although closures of these types are rather inexpensive and are convenient for opening and reclosing containers, they are not easily made tamper-proof or tamper-evident. Moreover, the corresponding opening on the container on which such closures are used, as well as the opening of the closure itself, is not always very convenient for dispensing the contents of the container. Syrup products, for example, are well known for their tendency to drip and run onto the outer surface of their container and to cake around the container opening making reclosure of the container difficult. Accordingly, it is common for syrup to be transferred from the container in which it was purchased to a pitcher having a closure with a pour spout, a handle, and a thumb-operated lid. Although such dispensing pitchers are convenient to use, they have the disadvantage of requiring a separate container.
It is desirable to provide closures for containers for liquids such as syrup and the like that avoid these and other disadvantages of known closures, and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.